Four Iranians have been charged with plotting to kidnap a New York-based journalist and human rights activist critical of Iran and take her back to Tehran, the US Department of Justice says. Court papers did not name the target, but Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad said it was her. Authorities said the accused – alleged intelligence
US
The long-range weather forecast from meteorologist Mike Everett is bleak: “Places like this could become uninhabitable.” He has spent the last week guiding viewers of NBC News in Palm Springs, California, through its latest record-breaking heatwave. The desert city is used to the heat but things are extreme. It has recorded its hottest June ever,
Sir Richard Branson’s private space tourism company will launch its first flight carrying the billionaire, two pilots, and three mission specialists to the fringes of space. The VSS Unity spaceplane will be launched in mid-air after dropping from the belly of its mothership at an altitude of about 9.4 miles (15km) before its rocket fires
Richard Branson’s moment of destiny in space will happen 50 miles above a town called Truth or Consequences. In the high desert of New Mexico, a dream that was born when Branson watched the moon landing two days after his 19th birthday will, he hopes, finally be realised. It has been a long journey for
People are being evacuated from a community in the US state of Nevada as a wildlife that started in neighbouring California spreads. The inferno, near Doyle, northeast of the Sierra Nevada region, has doubled in size in recent days as it has rushed through the bone dry timber amid record temperatures in the region. On
Workers have started to remove the last of the high-security fencing erected around the US Capitol in the wake of the deadly attack on Congress. The eight-foot black mesh fencing was built around several parts of Capitol Hill after Donald Trump supporters stormed government buildings on 6 January. But six months on from the deadly
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been given a “special award” for deciding to limit their family to two children. Prince Harry, 36, told British Vogue in 2019 he and Meghan, 39, were only planning “two maximum” to reduce their impact on the environment. Their son Archie was born on 6 May that year,
A grizzly bear has been shot dead in Montana after it dragged a woman from her tent and killed her, local officials have said. Leah Davis Lokan, 65, of California, was on a mountain biking trip with two friends in Ovando, Montana, when the 400lb bear attacked their camp in the early hours of Tuesday.
Britney Spears’s father has said he opposes paying for the extra security costs of the singer’s carer, after claims she had received death threats. Lawyers for Jodi Montgomery, who has looked after Spears‘s healthcare as part of the star’s controversial conservatorship arrangement since 2019, said that she had been sent death threats after the performer
A 14-year-old girl has made history by becoming the first African American to win the 96-year-old US Scripps National Spelling Bee. Zaila Avant-garde, a sporting prodigy with several Guinness World Records to her name for dribbling multiple basketballs at a time, won the event by correctly spelling Murraya – a genus of tropical Asiatic and
Police bodycam footage shows officers rescuing a six-year-old girl after she was kidnapped from outside her home in Kentucky. The victim was riding her bicycle in Louisville on 2 July when she was snatched by a stranger in a car, witnesses told the Louisville Metro Police Department. Neighbour Prentiss Weatherford told WHAS-TV that he saw
Three people are dead and two are missing after a group of nine people, all believed to be from the same family, went missing after floating down a river on inflatable rings and dropping over the edge of a dam. Four of the group were rescued and taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries after
Kim Kardashian West has said she almost became a “runaway bride” before her 72-day marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries. The reality star told a Keeping Up With The Kardashians reunion special she had cold feet before tying the knot, but denied claims the wedding was a ploy to boost ratings. Kardashian West married Humphries
Two women have told Sky News they were left feeling ashamed and suicidal after explicit videos of them were posted on the world’s biggest online porn website – they claim without their consent. In a legal case filed in the US, more than 30 women have accused MindGeek, the parent company of Pornhub, of profiting
A US national holiday commemorating the end of slavery is due to be signed into law by President Biden after it received overwhelming backing. Representatives voted by 415-14 to make 19 June, known as Juneteenth, a federal holiday, while the Senate passed the bill unanimously. Mr Biden is expected to add his signature at the
The executions of two inmates have been blocked by a US court, who ruled they must get the choice to die by firing squad. The South Carolina supreme court halted the executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, ruling that officials needed to put together a firing squad to give them the option of how
Indian actress Priyanka Chopra, US footballer Megan Rapinoe and transgender model Valentina Sampaio have joined Victoria’s Secret as the embattled lingerie company undergoes a “dramatic shift”. Known for its famous annual fashion show featuring some of the biggest names in the modelling world – including Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks
The first “murder hornet” discovered in the US this year has been found north of Seattle. The dead Asian giant hornet, which was found in Snohomish County, appears to be unrelated to findings in Canada and Whatcom County along the Canadian border in 2019 and 2020. The insects are two inches (about 5cm) long, are
There are moments when dull is good. This was one of them. It was clearly a big and important meeting – the first face-to-face encounter between Joe Biden as US president and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. And with relations back nearing Cold War levels (they had both conceded as much) a tête-à-tête was needed. Given
Russia’s Vladimir Putin says he and US President Joe Biden have agreed to return their ambassadors to their respective posts in an attempt to lower tensions. It comes after around four hours of talks between the leaders at a summit in Switzerland. The two men have had face-to-face discussions at a villa on the shores